What Goes Around Comes Around will have an exclusive residency at the Hotel Jerome, Auberge Collection in Aspen during Art Week from July 25 to Aug. 2.
The pop-up will feature a selection of rare and historically significant pieces, including limited-edition pre-loved Hermès bags and Louis Vuitton artist collaborations — highlighted by the iconic Louis Vuitton x Stephen Sprouse trunk that Marc Jacobs gifted to André Leon Talley ($135,000).
“Our clients are global, and many are now spending their summers in Aspen and staying at the Hotel Jerome,” said Seth Weisser, cofounder of What Goes Around Comes Around. “We’re not just bringing our collection; we’re bringing our signature client experience to a community that fundamentally values collecting artistry and luxury, which includes fashion. The Hotel Jerome offers the same excellence and service that we do at What Goes Around Comes Around, which made it an easy and obvious choice for our pop-up location.”
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The partnership invites collectors to discover pieces that are as rare as the art showcased at the Aspen Air Fair, Intersect Air Fair and ArtCrush.
Mandi Meng, area director of marketing and communications at Auberge Collection, said, “What Goes Around Comes Around treats fashion as art, and they’ve built their name on pieces with real history and provenance behind them, the kind that hold their value the way a great work does. True collectors know the difference between something singular and something that’s merely expensive, whether it’s a one-of-a-kind piece or an archival runway look. Bringing WGACA’s archive to the social hub of Aspen makes perfect sense, where an archival piece meets a place with its own rich history.”
In discussing the pop-up, Weisser told WWD that they’ve been doing a lot of work with travel and leisure businesses and working with hotels and cruise ships.
“It’s a big area of growth for What Goes Around Comes Around,” Weisser said.
He said that his former head of marketing is running marketing for Auberges, so they were talking about what they could do together. “[Hotel] Jerome was a great starting point for us, particularly because the Aspen market crosses over with a lot of our clients already from New York and L.A. So we thought it was going to be a great position for us to test the Aspen market and keep connecting with our good clients,” Weisser said.
The pop-up came together in six weeks.
He said this was the first time they’re doing a pop-up at this level. What Goes Around Comes Around has permanent hotel relationships with Omni and Disney.
Gerard Maione, cofounder and chief creative officer of What Goes Around Comes Around, said the pop-up is 1,000 square feet and is located in the Aspen Times building, which is separate from the hotel, but on the premises.
“You know, we’re so elaborate with what we do in our stores in terms of the whole experience and the layout and the fixtures and the merchandising. We did our best to translate that and bring that over to the Aspen Times. So we have an amazing setup there where we’re going to be curating all the product,” Maione said.
There’s a back room, where they’re going to have a fur and gown salon and a try-on space, which is a little more VIP. He said the front of the store is going to be “all VIP” as well.
What Goes Around Comes Around plans to bring 750 pieces to Aspen.
“We’re meticulous about condition in general, like the way we curate what we buy because we own everything,” Weisser said. “We’re very strict in our rules, and so we’re bringing basically like a collectible grouping of Chanel, Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Chrome Hearst and even vintage Levi’s and the world of What Goes Around Comes Around.
“We want to bring things that are connecting to the Aspen Art Fair because the Aspen Art Fair is starting that week. So we’re bringing stuff that is kind of ‘fashion meets art,’” Weisser said.
Asked if they’re allowed to still carry Chanel (in 2024, Chanel won a landmark federal trademark and counterfeiting lawsuit against What Goes Around Comes Around), Weisser said, “Yes, we’re allowed to carry and sell Chanel. We’re still in appeals with that.” They’re supposed to hear the appeals this fall.
“We’re allowed like everybody else in the second market to sell secondary goods. We can do as we please,” Maione said.
Discussing what they anticipate will be bestsellers in Aspen, Maione said,”The Birkins, Kellys, all our classic, iconic Chanel bags. When you think of it from a style standpoint, our ready-to-wear is just really top level.…When you think of Aspen, going into ski season…we have an amazing collection of vintage, amazing shearlings, a lot of Chanel ski outerwear, and actually [Chanel] skis themselves. There is a lot of Chanel ski wear, there’s Dior ski wear.”
What Goes Around Comes Around has three freestanding stores — two in New York City and one in Beverly Hills. “We’re looking to expand into some of these luxury markets, and Aspen is one of the ones we’re pursuing,” Maione said. The luxury vintage retailer has partnerships with retailers and firms where they have sections in stores such as Kith, Ritz Carlton Yachts, Omni, Disney and Dillard’s, among other retailers.
Weisser said they’re having an excellent year.
“Business has been great this year. We’re just seeing increases. I think there’s an overwhelming demand for pre-owned luxury right now, more than we’ve ever seen. I think that we’re uniquely positioned to be able to service these people with the highest quality and the most important pieces for their collectability, and it just seems like the participation in the resale industry has kind of crossed over to the mainstream in a way that we’ve always been hoping,” Weisser said.
The items will range from $350 for vintage rock T-shirts and vintage Levi’s to $250,000 for a crocodile 25-centimeter Hermès Birkin with diamonds, Weisser said. There’s also a Chanel surfboard that was signed by Karl Lagerfeld.
